DERT
by TheDirtGuy
Summary: There are a lot of possible team combinations, so every once and a while, you get strapped with one that is nothing but unfortunate. That's where Team DERT comes in with their quest to escape ridicule and obscurity. But sometimes, no matter what you do, you'll never end up on top. A background story with a lot of OCs. Oh dear. Story runs alongside canon.
1. Breaking the Surface

_Every tale has its heroes. Those fearless souls who will stop at nothing and risk it all in order to ensure a bright tomorrow._  
 _Likewise, every tale has its villains. Forces of evil who seem to thrive off of chaos as they plan to plunge everything into darkness._  
 _Such duality has existed since the dawn of time, and each story of heroes and villains will unfold in its own unique way._  
 _But when you dig past the heroes and villains, you simply find...the rest of them._  
 _This is the story of the rest of them._

 _..._

A bell went off as the door to the pizza place was opened, indicating that a customer had entered the building. It had been a long and tiring day for Topaz Fossil, after all, he was leaving for Beacon in only a couple days, so most of his day was dedicated to packing his things and getting himself ready. So what better way to wind down at the end of the day but to pick up a slice of pizza? He didn't seem to be the only one who was planning to take it easy that night either. Just on his way to the pizza shop he spotted a group of people, most of which dressed in a rather snazzy black suit getup except the one leading the bunch who was wearing a white suit and hat, heading towards the Dust shop next door. There must have been some sort of party going on there or something.

Topaz rested his mechanical arm on the counter, waiting for the man in the kitchen to finish whatever order he was working on. The one mechanical arm was not the strangest thing about Topaz at a first glance, that honor would go to the eyepatch over his left eye. However, outside of those two distinctive features, his appearance was rather plain, sporting a short beard, a dulled blue coat over a more vibrant blue undershirt with matching shorts and a pair of open toed sandals. Looking up at the menu, Topaz couldn't help but lick his lips. So many good toppings to choose from...

A man washing his hands on a cloth opened up the kitchen doors and walked up to the counter, "Sorry to keep you waiting like that. What can I get you tonight?"

Topaz looked up at the man, slightly caught off guard by his sudden appearance, "Right. I'd like one slice to go, please." he said.  
The man behind the counter nodded, "All right then, any toppings on that?"

Fossil placed his hand on his chin, his gaze once more drifting up the menu, "Let's see here. So many options..."

"Take your time." The employee said, "It's a slow night, so there's no rush."

"Hmm...maybe pepperoni?" Topaz mumbled to himself, his entire focus dedicated to the menu. So much so that he didn't flinch, or notice for that matter, the loud sound of shattering glass coming from next door. Nor did he notice the scene that began to play out through the window of the pizza place. Though hearing the noises, the man behind the counter slowly tried to look over Topaz's shoulder to see the ruckus going on outside. All he was able to make out was there was some young girl wielding a rather large scythe surrounded by a group of gang members. The man shook his head, this wasn't something he wanted to deal with today.

"...Nah. I've had pepperoni a lot lately, I need to mix it up..." Topaz continued, still blissfully unaware of the events taking place outside. Whatever was going on out there seemed to escalate as the gang members rushed the girl. However, the girl seemed to be in more control of the situation, easily fighting off each of her opponents.

"Maybe mushrooms? It's been a while..."

The fight continued outside, with the last gang member being flung into the air...and crashing right into the window of the pizza place.  
"Oh!" Topaz exclaimed, "Meatballs! Yeah, let's have meatballs be the topping!"

The employee slowly nodded as the henchman slid down the window, landing on the ground unconscious, "...R-right." he said, "I'll get it to you right away..." and with that, he quickly went back in the kitchen.

During the short wait, Topaz simply found himself tapping his hands up against the counter to form a simple rhythm, one that was apparently so enchanting that it made him completely oblivious to the loud explosions going off right outside and the two fighters climbing up to the rooftops. It only took a few minutes for the man to return with the slice of pizza in hand. Topaz happily took the slice, paid for his meal, and walked out the door to the now deserted streets. Stepping over the unconscious man, Topaz spotted the rather large crater in the road and paused.

"Wow..." he muttered to himself, "Those construction guys really need to do a better paving job."

Taking a bite out of his pizza, Topaz happily made his way down the streets, back to his home. It would be a busy next couple of days after all.

...

 _"...Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact..."_

The airship had been making steady course towards Beacon for quite some time now, filled to the brim with new students. Some were simply talking among one another, others found themselves sitting on their own, while more simply sat back and elected to watch the Vale News Network play over a projection. In the latter group, two students, one with curly red hair and a black top hat firmly planted on his head, and the other with slicked back black hair began to quietly laugh between each other.

"Out of everyone, is that seriously the guy who is giving the authorities a run for their money?" The black haired man said to his friend, "He doesn't look like anything special. What do you think, Dawn?"

The top hatted man shook his head, "I don't know, Damson. I'm more impressed by the fact he can apparently pull a heist while only using one eye. ...Seriously, how does he see out of that other one?" Outside of the top hat, Dawn sported an open peacoat, that interestingly enough started out a dark blue at the top, but slowly took on a more orange coloring farther down on the coat. Underneath the peacoat was a dark blue undershirt, and a pair of matching pants. Lastly, he was wearing a pair of orange boots, that almost seemed to look more mechanical than anything else.

"Well if you ask me, it just looks like they're having a slow news day." Damson said as he casually leaned against the nearby wall. In comparison to his friend, Damson's outfit was rather plain. He wore a sleeveless shirt and a pair of cargo shirts, both colored in a murky blue. While at a first glance, that would seem to be it, on closer inspection one would notice a set of gills on his neck. His attention returned to the holographic screen in front of them, "See! It's back to another one of those White Fang stories! I swear there's nothing good on anymore..."  
Dawn smiled as he turned to face his friend, "Well, if the news has nothing going for it, we could always run by the battle plan again." he paused for a moment, as if he was trying to go over a lot of information at once, "...Remind me, were you able to get the dirt on how this whole thing works?"

"You mean the team thing?" Damson sighed and shook his head, "Nah, I can't seem to pry the info about how they set them up out of anyone. Looks like we're going in blind."

"Right...so there's no guarantee that we'll even get the same team then. Greaaaat..." Dawn rested the left side of his face on his hand, "And here I was hoping we could rig it to get a super cool name or something...I guess it's on to Plan B then!"

Damson rose an eyebrow, "Plan B? I don't remember anything about a Plan B."

"That's because I literally made it up a good five seconds ago."

"Well then," Damson chuckled, "What's your Plan B then?"

Dawn quickly sat up, "Alright. So I was hoping we could just hang around when we arrived at Beacon, but if there's no guarantee on the whole team thing, that might not work. So when we land, it might be for the better if we split up and actually try to meet some new people. I know, the horror." As Dawn continued to talk on, his pace slowly but surely began to quicken, "Given that there are a lot of people heading to Beacon, it wouldn't seem too out of the question that we could come across some other people who are competent enough at what they do. As long as we are able to find a handful of people who know what they're doing, then we should know enough people that even if they make teams by doing handstand contests or something, we'll be teamed with some nice and competent people. And if in the tragic case we don't end up on the same team together, then we can cry about it in the corner, meet up during lunch, and not be on a team with a bunch of random people we don't know." He took a deep breath, "...Got it?"

"...I think?" Damson replied, "It's hard to keep up with someone moving at light speed."

Dawn sighed, "All right, I'll take that one. The point is, just split up, try to find some decent people, and no matter what we'll find ourselves on capable teams."

"Sounds like a plan!" Damson grinned, "...So how much longer is it before we land at Beac-"

He was cut off by a young woman rushing right past the two, almost knocking both of them over.

Dawn blinked, "I'm sorry, what?"

"I...don't think I want to know what her problem is."

...

Raspberry Auryn's problem was that she was very, very, bored.

During the period of time before she got on the airship, all Raspberry could think about was whether or not there would be anyone she knew heading to Beacon. It became apparent very quickly that the answer to that question was a resounding "no". This realization lead to Raspberry being overcome by a large wave of boredom. She did realize however, that there was an instant fix to her whole problem. Find someone to talk to.

Although, that's easier said than done. From the looks of things, it seemed that just about everyone already had someone that they were talking to, and it wasn't like she could just butt into someone's conversation.

...In reality, it was actually closer to she couldn't just butt into someone's conversation again. The first time she tried it the people seemed more weirded out than anything else. It was a shame she couldn't find anyone to talk to, as she had made sure that she was dressed her best for the trip. She wore a magenta dress with a darker short jacket over it, a pair of vibrant red leggings, purple ankle boots, a nice little necklace with a few red rhinestones hanging from it, and a small red fascinator hat, slightly tilted to the left. Interestingly enough, while most of the outfit did seem to fit in, there were two things that stuck out. The first was a black belt with a lot of pouches around her waist, the second was a brown gauntlet placed over her right hand, although the material stretched up well over her arm, giving it a light coat of armor. While the gauntlet itself was mostly rather plain, the backside of it had a rather large jewel embedded onto it.

All that getup and she couldn't find anyone to talk to...But it was a large airship, so she hadn't even gotten a chance to scout the whole place out yet! Who knows, there might be someone on this side of the airship...

Raspberry moved a strand of blonde hair out of her face and clasped her hands together (which was a little bit difficult to do considering the gauntlet covering one arm) and began to scan the area. There was some girl in red talking to a blonde, some guy talking to what looked to be some sort of bird Faunus, someone with short black hair sitting on their own reading a book...

The young woman smiled, perhaps she could strike up conversation with him? He was reading some sort of book, and she liked books too! This shouldn't prove to be all that difficult.

Before getting any closer, Raspberry quickly examined the young man. He sported a rather simple long sleeved black undershirt with matching pants, a purple doublet littered with black patterns that almost looked like leaves, a matching cape skirt, a pair of tall purple boots, and a silver pendant with a star embedded into it around his neck. The book he was reading looked to be rather bulky...though Raspberry wasn't quite able to make out the title.

Raspberry approached the reading man, with a skip to her step. The man didn't seem to notice that she had approached him.

"Hello there!" Raspberry suddenly said, an air of cheerfulness to her voice. The man glanced up from his book and quickly looked around to make sure that she was talking to him and not someone else.

Upon realizing that he was the only one around she could be talking to he let out a small sigh, "...Hi."

Raspberry didn't pay any mind to the disinterest in his voice and continued just as happily, "I couldn't help but notice you were sitting all alone, soooo I figured that I would come over to talk to you! After all, I'm sure no one wants to come to Beacon all alone. I'm Raspberry Auryn! What's your name?"

The man turned the page in his book, not even looking up, "Eminence LeFay."

"Oooh." Raspberry started, "That's a really fancy name! ...Sooo, are you excited about going to Beacon? There are tons of cool people on this airship alone! Imagine everyone working together to beat up some Grimm! Man, that's going to be so cool!"

"Yeah, sure." Eminence plainly replied, barely paying attention to the conversation.

"Oh yeah! If you don't mind me asking, can I take a peek at the book you're reading?" Raspberry asked.

For the first time, Eminence looked up from his book, "Umm...I'm not sure if it's your kind of genre."

Raspberry smiled, "Nonsense! I love all kinds of books! Is it a history one, or maybe some horror novel?"

Eminence started to shift around, "No, I'm sure you wouldn't be intereste-" he was cut off as Raspberry started to lean in closer to get a look.

"A quick peek wouldn't hurt anyone!"

"Wait!"

However, before Eminence could get out of the way, Raspberry had moved the book away from his face to see what he was reading. But instead of being greeted by some paragraphs of text, she was greeted by some...rather explicit images of two men in the bedroom.  
They both sat there in silence for what felt like hours but couldn't have been longer than a few seconds before Raspberry stood up, "Well, it was nice to meet you Eminence but look at the time, I gotta go. Bye!" she quickly got out before leaving in the other direction. Eminence simply sat there looking on for a few more moments before shrugging and going back to his "reading".

...

Raspberry had made her way back to the main deck, all alone once more. The very first thing she noticed was a hologram go out the moment she had arrived. For a few moments, she started to wonder what exactly she missed, really hoping that it wasn't anything super important. This train of thought was was quickly cut off when Raspberry noticed quite a few students heading towards different windows on the airship. Curious to see what was going on, the young woman walked towards one of the windows and took a look outside.

She was greeted with the sight of Beacon itself, not too far in the distance, "Wow..." Raspberry mumbled to herself, "It's a lot prettier up close like this..."

Raspberry continued to keep her eyes on Beacon for quite some time, it was only when she heard a suitcase slam to the floor and some grumbling that she was torn from the window and decided to turn around. Nearby was a young man with short brown hair reaching into a briefcase, putting on a blue shirt and a blue jacket over it, muttering something to himself.

Raspberry slightly tilted her head, "Umm, excuse me, but are you doing all right?" she asked.

The man looked over, "Well, I WAS doing all right, everything was going just peachy, but then some weirdo vomited all over my nice shirt! Who does that!?"

"Someone puked on you...?" Raspberry asked. She was expecting a lot of new and exciting things to happen at Beacon, but somehow that wasn't one of them, "Man, that really stinks. Sorry to hear about that."

The young man sighed, "Thanks...Sorry for immediately lashing out at you like that, I was still in the moment. My name is Topaz. Topaz Fossil." he stated as he held out a hand.

Raspberry was very quick to reach out and shake his hand. Had she just accidentally made a friend? And all she had to do was stare out a window for a few minutes, "I'm Raspberry Auryn! It's a pleasure to meet you!" she happily stated.

Topaz nodded before turning back to close his briefcase, muttering something along the lines of, "And now it's all going to smell like dried vomit. Fantastic."

As Topaz got up from the floor, Raspberry continued to speak, "I hope this doesn't come across as rude or something...but what's up with the eyepatch?"

Topaz smiled, "Oh, that? Yeeeeaaaahhhh, I may or may not have had some pretty nasty encounters with some Grimm when I was younger..."  
"Oh!" Raspberry almost jumped in the air from surprise, "You actually lost your eye? That's awful!"

The young man simply shrugged, "It was bad at the time, but I've gotten used to it. Besides, it does look pretty cool at the end of the day. It's the same deal with this." he said as he held up his mechanical arm.

"Whoa, I didn't realize that was a prosthetic arm." Raspberry said, "I thought you were just ripping off my style..." she quietly said to herself, her gaze moving to her own gauntlet.

"Yeah, it's all because of those stupid cursed blades."

Raspberry rose an eyebrow, "Cursed...blades?"

Topaz reached behind him and removed a silver hooked blade with a black hilt from a strap on his back, "Yeah, this is The Cursed Dutchman...well one of them, the other one is still on my back. These things have been handed down my family for quite a while now, and while they're pretty useful in a battle, both of them are completely cursed." Raspberry rose a finger, ready to say something before Topaz cut her off, "And no, I'm not making that up! I wouldn't have lost any body parts if these things weren't cursed, and now that I think about it they're probably the reason why that guy puked directly on my shirt out of everyone there! Sure, I think some girl got some on her shoes, but I swear he was aiming for me the second time around."

"He threw up twice in a row?"

"I think he's still throwing up."

"Eww..." Raspberry said to herself before popping a potato chip into her mouth.

Topaz shook his head, "But yeah, those are just the major offenders. I'm sure just about everything bad that has happened to me are because of this stupid blades, but it's not like I can just get rid of them. They're really effective, and for all I know the curse would be transferred to any other weapon I pick...up..." he tampered off as he just noticed Raspberry eating, "...Where did you get that food from?"

Raspberry looked up, "Oh, the chips? I always keep some snacks in my utility belt in case I get hungry!"

"Oh, that's neat." Topaz said. Both were silent for a couple seconds before he continued, "...Actually, can I have some chips too?"

"Sure!" Raspberry smiled as she pulled out a small stack of potato chips from a pouch on her belt, "I should have enough snacks to last for a few days!"

Topaz happily took the chips, "Thanks! Nothing like a little snack to make you feel better after your good shirt gets ruined..."  
Outside, there was a loud sound as the airship had finally reached Beacon and had begun its landing procedures. A number of students made their way to the bridge, hoping to get off of the ship as soon as possible. However, Raspberry and Topaz simply looked at the school before them, crunching on some tasty chips.

...

 **Author Notes**

-Ooh boy, let's go over some basic stuff. First of all, thanks for checking this out! It's super appreciated!

-I'm not going to beat around the bush here, I am generally not the kind of person who shows up to write some fanfiction, especially ones that have OCs as the main focus, but here we are. This whole thing started as a small joke when someone in a small group of friends I'm in decided to put our names together in a RWBY team fashion. ...It spelled DERT. We immediately found this very amusing and ideas slowly but surely started pouring in...and here we are now!

-I do want to give massive shoutouts though to GAvillain, JCMorrigan, and 73Windman. While I'm the one doing the nitty gritty writing parts, these three have been helping out a ton with designs, ideas, jokes, and proofreading my mediocre English. Super shoutouts to all three of them!

-There are two rules I am abiding by when it comes to this fic. I am well aware the...danger that can emerge from fics like this, namely having crummy Mary Sue OCs everywhere. It's my first rule and goal to avoid this as much as humanly possible. We're here to read something interesting gosh dangit, not something about everyone swooning at the sight of the OC of the week.

-Which leads to my second rule, which I think makes writing this a little bit more fun. That being I am not allowed to interfere with the canon events of RWBY whatsoever. I can and will add events to fill in parts of canon that simply aren't covered in the show proper, but you're never going to see someone jump in to help RWBY fight Torchwick in a mech or something, because that's not how it happened. I want it to be done in a way that you can put the two side and by side, and there will barely be any contradictions. It makes coming up with the plotlines a lot more fun to say the least.

-I really don't have a whole lot of actual notes for this first chapter. It's a bunch of introductions, we got to get them out of the way. There are a few more coming in next time, but after that the OC Train must take a rest for quite a while. We don't need it to get too crowded in here.


	2. Paving the Road Ahead

As the airship doors opened and the bridge lowered, a slew of students on board quickly gathered their belongings and disembarked the ship. Some of them were in a hurry, as they were consumed in a frenzy of excitement as to have arrived at Beacon. Others were walking down at a leisurely pace talking among each other, and then there were those who simply walked down the bridge slowly with no one but themselves to keep them company.

Eminence fit right into the last group.

Although, no matter how hard he could try to ignore it, he had to admit that he was both excited and relieved to have finally arrived at the school. Perhaps it was the fact that he was no longer stuck on a crowded airship, maybe the fresh air just made him feel better, or maybe it was a sense of relief that he had finally got away from his household. Beacon was far from the closest academy compared to where he lived...but if it meant not going to the same school as Amber, the extra trip was something he was willing to take.

He shook his head at the mere thought of his half-sister. It didn't matter anymore, after all, he had made it to Beacon. While he had to jump through a few hurdles, in the end he had gotten exactly what he wanted, naturally.

...It was only a question of what would happen from here.

He was more than aware of the plain and simple fact that he would have to actually meet people, and at the same time it was something he was entirely fine with. It was almost as if arriving at Beacon had lifted a weight off of his shoulders and would let him be able to move freely. The only downside was that while Eminence had no problems with meeting new people, he wasn't entirely keen on being the one who would initiate the conversation. It would be a lot more convenient if someone else were to do that.

As the thought processed in his head, Eminence froze in his tracks as he remembered that something like that happened back on the airship. Some random girl showed up...Ross-something or another? And he absolutely just shrugged her off. He started mentally kicking himself as the realization that it might have been helpful to actually pay attention to her...but in his own defense, he was still incredibly stressed out about his departure from home and wanted some...alone time. He wasn't exactly in the proper mindset to handle a chipper girl appearing out of nowhere. In hindsight, he appreciated the motion, but if he was occupied, he was occupied.

He continued walking towards the academy, there's no use crying over spilled milk after all. There would be plenty of time to deal with that whole situation later, first things first he had to figure out where his luggage was supposed to go. From there, as long as he put on a good and presentable image for himself, someone would buy it and possibly get to know him.

...

Dawn slowed down in his tracks as he saw a thinner black haired young man wearing a purple doublet make his way past the crowds and towards the school. As he passed by, Dawn turned to Damson, "See, that's someone who looks like they know what they're doing. I'll see if I can scout him out later..."

Damson tried to get a good look at the man before raising an eyebrow, "Really? What makes you say that?"

The top hatted man simply shrugged, "His outfit is pretty fancy looking, which is always a good start."

"Just because someone knows how to dress themselves in the morning, doesn't make them competent."

"Which is why we're scouting! Speaking of..." Dawn paused and looked ahead of him, the mass of students seemed to have broken apart into much smaller groups dispersing all around the area, "I think it's just about time we split up and being Plan B! I'll scout the left, you scout the right, and we'll meet back up later and discuss our findings."

"Got it." Damson smiled, "But if this works I'm taking fifty percent of the credit for this plan." with that, he walked off on his own.

"Good luck!" Dawn quickly waved to his friend before turning around, looking at the path ahead of him. It was at that moment when a realization hit Dawn like a truck, while this whole thing was his idea...he had no idea where to even start, "...Or at least have better luck than me." he muttered to himself before heading off.

...

Topaz and Raspberry were walking down a small side path around the school, there was apparently some meeting in a few hours, and after being cooped up on an airship for some time, both agreed that getting some fresh air would be a nice change of pace.

"...And that's when I decided that the only way to find the candy bar would to become a Huntress!" Raspberry said, finishing up some story.

Topaz was silent for a few moments before speaking up, "I...don't believe you."

Raspberry looked legitimately surprised, "Wait, why not?"

Topaz just looked at Raspberry for a few moments, his face screaming, "Are you kidding me?" (Neither of them noticing the top hatted student coming up behind them, letting out a few quiet, "Umm...hey"s before giving up and walking away) before shaking his head, "The whole reason you came to Beacon is for some candy?"

"Well, I miiiggghhhtt be leaving out a few details. But do you have a better reason yourself?" Raspberry replied.

"As a matter of fact-" Topaz was cut off by a rather loud and distinct whooshing noise. It was evident that he wasn't the only one who had heard it, as Raspberry also seemed to startled by the noise.

"Was that a...weapon?" Raspberry wondered out loud, "It sounded like someone swinging a sword..."

The two looked around for a few moments, trying to find the source of the noise. It wasn't very long until Topaz noticed a figure holding a rapier hacking away at a nearby tree, "What in the..." he muttered to himself before the two of them decided to approach this odd figure. Upon closer inspection they were able to notice how well dressed the man was. Rested on his head was a vibrant green tricorn hat, complete with a black feather sticking out from the right side. He also wore a matching green vest with a surprisingly plain white shirt underneath it, a pair of black tights lined with green accents, matching fingerless gloves, a pair of black boots that were decorated with the same green neon lights, and the whole outfit was capped off with a striped green, black, and grey scarf neatly wrapped out his neck. They were also able to spot an orange and white tail slowly waving back and forth.

Topaz took a step closer to the young man, "Umm...excuse me?"

Before Topaz could continue, the figure spun around, "Oh, my apologies." He began, his voice definitely having a suave ring to it, "I do hope I'm not causing a disturbance."

"Oh, not at all!" Topaz quickly said, shaking his head, "I was just wondering what it was you're doing."

The Faunus held up his rapier to eye level, "I was simply practicing a little bit. There's that initiation coming up after all, and I don't wish to be caught off guard." he let out a rather over the top sigh, "But since everyone has just arrived, I don't think sparring is an option, so I have decided that this tree shall be my sparring partner!" On cue, he twirled around and sliced at the tree, leaving a remarkably clean cut in the bark.

Topaz nodded, "Okay, I guess that makes some sense. Thanks...umm..."

"Midori Botas." the man bowed a little, "It's a pleasure to meet you..."

Topaz simply smiled, "I'm Topaz!" he then gestured behind him, "And this is my friend, Raspberry." However, instead of greeting him back, Raspberry simply stood there, staring off into the distance, "Umm...Raspberry?"

"Oh no..." she quietly said, "I completely forgot about the initiation! Do we have any idea what it is?!"

Topaz scratched his head, "I don't think we do..."

Raspberry threw her hands up in the air, "Great! How can I prepare for something I don't know? Sure, if we have to beat something up, I can do that, but what if there's more to it?! What if we always have to cook a delicious gourmet meal? I'm telling you, I don't know how to cook up a delicious gourmet meal!"

"This isn't a cooking school..." Topaz quietly replied.

"We don't know that!"

Midori simply started laughing, "Raspberry, was it? I'm sure as I am that I can best this tree in a duel, that the initiation will involve some test of battle prowess, and that it will most definitely not include cooking."

Raspberry took a deep breath before slowly nodding, "...Yeah, that makes sense. Sorry about that, the initiation slipped my mind and...I guess I just leaped to the worst possible scenario."

"The worst possible scenario is...cooking?" Topaz crossed his arms.

"It can be..." Raspberry muttered to herself before moving her attention back to Midori, "Anyway, it's nice to meet you!"

Midori nodded, "I can say the same. Here's hoping we'll run into each other during initiation, but for now...this tree and I have unfinished business!" he then turned around and continued his little "duel" with the tree.

Smiling, Topaz and Raspberry continued walking down the path before Topaz spoke up, "So can you tell me again, what is up with the candy bar...?"

...

"I swear, a locker shouldn't be this hard to find..."

Eminence was wandering around the locker room, trying desperately to find the number he was assigned. All he wanted to do was to put some of his stuff away so he didn't have to deal with carrying it all around the school, but it seemed that doing so would be a lot more difficult than he had originally thought.

"Stupid lockers, I swear they're not even in the right order...how is anyone supposed to find these dumb things, I can't believe this..." he continued to mutter to himself.

"Hello, my gentleman!" he suddenly heard a deeper voice ring out from behind him. Eminence quickly turned around to find the source of the voice, only to see someone who looked his age standing right in front on him, and someone he could have sworn wasn't in the room before.

"Umm...Hi?" Eminence said, trying to study this newcomer. He seemed to be rather well dressed, wearing a blue green blazer and a pair of matching business pants. Underneath the blazer was a beige vest and his sandy brown hair was combed backwards rather nicely. What was more interesting was the small green mask around his eyes, though the rest of his face was not covered. Eminence also noticed a belt around his waist with what looked like a few bits of long sharp teeth hanging from it.

The newcomer dramatically lifted up his hands, allowing Eminence to notice that his fingers were webbed and smiled, "A tip of the metaphorical hat from Teal Umbra." he motioned towards himself before taking a few steps closer, "How are ya doing?"

Eminence rose an eyebrow, he figured there would be some more interesting students at Beacon, but this was just weirding him out more than anything, "I'd be doing better if I could find my stupid locker..."

Teal rubbed his hands together, "Finding a locker, huh? Maybe that's something I could help out with."

"...How would you have any idea on where to find some guy's locker?"

Teal paused for a moment, clearly unsure about how to answer before letting out a sigh, "...I didn't rehearse this far." He said, his voice a lot less grand than before, "There really is no cool way to say that it took me twenty minutes to find my own locker so I think I memorized the layout of this room, is there?"

Eminence crossed his arms, "...So, what was that all about?"

"You seemed lost and I wanted to come up with a cool entrance." Teal shrugged, "...Clearly I didn't have time to think it all the way through...but was it effective?"

"Well, it did catch me off guard...so yeah, I guess it was." Eminence lightly chuckled.

Teal nodded, "I'll take it. Seriously though, Teal Umbra, it's a pleasure to meet you." as he finished speaking he held out his hand.

Eminence reached out to shake his hand, "Eminence LeFay. It's a pleasure."

"Agreed." Teal smiled, "So, what number was your locker supposed to be? I was serious when I said I've probably memorized the room."

"Right..." Eminence muttered as he lifted up a small piece of paper, "Looks like Number...583. I swear, that's such a stupid number."

"583..." Teal repeated to himself, "...What if I told you it was two lockers over to your left?"

Eminence remained frozen in place for a few moments before he slowly mustered up the willpower to turn around, and saw that the locker labeled "583" was indeed right over to his left, "...Oh. Thanks." he managed to say before he quickly opened up the locker and started placing his belongings inside.

Teal chuckled, "I guess I did interrupt you before you had a chance to see it, so that's my bad."

"Don't worry about it." Eminence shook his head, "It really isn't that big of a deal." he said as he finished unpacking his stuff and shut the locker door.

"Thanks, man." Teal smiled, "...Oh, that's right. I think all first year students are supposed to meet up in the main hall or something. I suppose you wouldn't mind if we went down together, would you?"

Eminence smiled, "Nah, I wouldn't mind at all." he said as he started to walk out of the locker room, Teal keeping up. It didn't seem like he had anyone he was hanging out with either, and he seemed like a nice enough guy, so what harm would there be in the grand scheme of things? The two headed out the doors, quietly conversing between one another as they made their way to the main hall.

...

Beacon's main hall was nearly filled to the brim with first year students either talking among one another, fooling around, or standing off to the side on their own. In this case, Dawn found himself in the third category as his plan didn't exactly go about as he had originally intended. He wasn't quite able to meet someone outside, and now that everyone was crowded together, he was having trouble actually finding anyone to talk to.

"Oh, there you are Dawn!" he suddenly heard from nearby. Turning around, he saw Damson running up to him, someone else slowly following behind.

"Oh, hey!" Dawn smiled, relieved to see a familiar face again, "How did your part of the search go?"

Damson smirked, "Well, I don't want to brag or anything, but I think it went rather well. I made friends with one guy in particular." he said, indicating towards the taller man behind him, "Dawn, this is Kaput Mortuum. Kaput, this is Dawn."

Kaput was wearing an open black leather trenchcoat with a purple tanktop under the coat, a pair of matching purple leather pants, and he had a small red charm in the shape of a feather hanging out of his left ear. The trenchcoat itself also had two holes in the back, large enough to fit a pair of red wings that were sticking out of his back, a color that matched his slicked back hair perfectly.

"It's nice to meet you, Dawn. Damson talked a little about you, saying something about how you really helped him out before." Kaput said with a small smile on his face.

Dawn quickly shook his head, "Oh, no, no, no. That's not important, trust me. But it's nice to meet you too." he paused for a second, still getting a quick look at Kaput, "Umm...Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm just wondering, can you actually fly with those wings...?"

Kaput let out a small laugh, "Oh, that? Don't worry about it, I get that question a lot more often than you'd think. As nice as that would be, I cannot fly, these wings are just kind of there, and there's not much I can do about it."

Damson quickly wrapped his arm around Dawn's shoulder, "He might not be able to actually fly or anything, but from what I've seen, he is definitely someone who can handle himself in a battle. He's definitely someone we should keep in mind if the whole team business comes to it."

Dawn smiled, "Great, great! Things are looking pretty good then."

"What about you?" Damson asked, "How did things go over on your end?"

The smile immediately vanished from Dawn's face.

"...You seriously didn't meet anyone, did you?" Damson bluntly asked.

"I mean, maybe it's...yeah." Dawn quietly said, "Somethings might be easier said than done..."

Damson clapped his hands together, "Well that's just fine, because we're in the middle of a huge crowded room, and since this was your plan, you get to go out and actually do it!"

"It's so crowded though, how is anyone supposed to do anything here?" Dawn asked as he begun to do a quick scan around the room. There had to be someone in the room that he could just introduce himself to. There were a bunch of small groups of people talking to one another, not really anything exciting there, there was something going on with one girl yelling at another girl...probably a mess he shouldn't butt into, someone with a mechanical arm talking to some girl, some more small groups...

Dawn stopped for a moment and looked back at the guy with the mechanical arm, "Wait a minute, were those the guys who completely ignored me earlier today?! It totally is them! Ignore me this time why don't you..." he mumbled to himself before turning back to Damson and Kaput, "It was nice to meet you Kaput, but I have something I have to handle real quick, if you don't mind." he said as he slowly began to push through the crowd and move towards the man with the mechanical arm.

...

Topaz shook his head, "I still cannot believe I can't do any laundry until after initiation, that shirt is completely ruined..."

"Hey, at the very least it didn't look like a super fancy shirt, it might be easy to replace." Raspberry replied, "Then again, it was a bit hard to see with the vomit on it..."

Topaz sighed, "I guess I can replace it, but still..."

His train of thought was cut off as the sound of a microphone turning on filled the room. Everyone's attention was very quickly moved to the stage where two middle aged figures were standing, one male, one female.

"...That's Headmaster Ozpin, right?" Raspberry whispered to Topaz.

Topaz nodded, "That's him, right. ...And I think she is Goodwitch or something...I don't remember."

On the stage, Ozpin cleared his throat and moved closer to the microphone in front of him, "I'll...keep this brief." he started, adjusting his spectacles, "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people." as he was talking, Raspberry found herself nodding along to what he was saying, while Topaz crossed his arms, more interested in where he was going with everything.

Ozpin continued, "But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction." the crowd of students seemed to be more confused at this comment than anything else.

Topaz looked over to Raspberry, "Looks like he overheard your candy story." he whispered.

"Hey! That's totally not wasted energy!"

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." with that said, Ozpin turned from the microphone and began to walk off the stage. Topaz and Raspberry looked at one another, both of them not quite sure what to take from that short speech.

As they did, Goodwitch took Ozpin's place at the microphone, "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." she said before she too, left the stage, leaving both Topaz and Raspberry in silence as the main hall slowly came back to life around them.

"Well then, that was the weirdest speech I've ever heard in my life." a voice loudly rang out behind them. They both turned around to see a young man wearing a top hat looking at the two of them.

Topaz looked at this newcomer, a tad confused, "Hello there...?"

"Right, hello! Just going around, introducing myself to people, getting to know some people, all that fun stuff. Name is Dawn Sebastian!" the top hatted man happily said, "And thanks for not ignoring me this time..." he quickly muttered under his breath.

"Oh, okay then." Topaz said, a little stunned about how out of nowhere the whole situation was, "I'm Topaz."

"And I'm Raspberry!" she happily piped in. Although in reality she was even more stunned than Topaz was, albeit not for the same reason. If she knew that a bunch of random people would just walk up to them and offer to be their friends, she could have just skipped all that running around on the airship.

Topaz tilted his head a little, "Hey, super quick question...what's up with the hat?"

Dawn's smile was quickly replaced with a look of confusion, "...What do you mean, what's with the hat?"

"I mean it looks nice and all, but it's just a rather specific thing to have on you, especially when I think everyone's dropped off their stuff by now." Topaz replied.

"I could ask the same to you about the robot arm and the eyepatch, really."

"Well, unless the hat is used to cover up some injury, I really don't think the same principle applies. Some nasty encounters with Grimm took out both my eye and my arm, so I kinda need those."

Dawn's eyes widened a little, "Wait, that's not just some weird fashion statement? You actually lost both of them to some Grimm?"

Raspberry put a hand to her chin, "Actually, I think he said it was two separate occasions?"

"How do you get mauled by Grimm twice?!" Dawn asked, getting more and more confused by the moment.

Topaz shrugged, "Losing an eye can do wonders for you when you try to take revenge right away...and you're still not used to fighting with one eye. That and my cursed blades."

"Right, cursed blades." Dawn said, just as confused as before, "Those don't sound like a real thing."

"Considering I've been using them for a while now, I'd totally say they're cursed." Topaz argued.

Dawn was silent for a couple moments before shaking his head, "You know what, it doesn't really matter, cursed blades and all. Just trying to get to know people after all. Arguing about a cursed sword or something doesn't really sound like a fun time right now, so I'm just going to drop the whole thing." he was silent for a few moments, awkwardly shifting his eyes around the room, not quite sure how to continue the conversation, "So...what brings you to Beacon?" he eventually asked.

Raspberry immediately grinned, "Candy!"

"I'm sorry, come again?"

Topaz shook his head, "I still don't buy it."

"You can not believe me all you want, that doesn't make it any less true!" Raspberry replied.

Dawn shrugged, "Okay, sure, I'll roll with it. I wish you luck on your...quest for candy...?"

"Thank you!" Raspberry happily replied, "But what about you? What made you decide to come here?"

Dawn seemed to tighten up at the question. His answer wasn't really embarrassing or anything, he just wasn't expected to be put on the spot like that, "Oh, umm...I just kinda found everything else to be boring in comparison. How could I sit behind some cash register or something when I would know that I could have been running around saving the day and beating up Grimm. I know that I couldn't live with that, so I took the initiative and here I am. And besides," he shrugged, "Coming up with a lot of fancy tricks in a battle is just really fun."

Raspberry nodded, "I can totally see where you're coming from! I don't think I could just sit around all day doing nothing either... Oh! If you like fighting, what's your weapon?"

Dawn smiled and shook his head, "I'm sorry, I can't just spoil the surprise."

"Surprise...? Why would a weapon need to be a surprise?" Topaz asked.

"It's a lot more fun to keep someone guessing." Dawn said while adjusting his hat, "I'm sure you'll see it sooner or later, all things considered. Anyway, I..." he tapered off as he noticed Damson had circled the room and started motioning to him "...I'm sorry, I think my friend has something he wants to tell me. It was nice to meet both of you, and I'm sure we'll see each other again in no time. But I really do have to run. Raspberry, I wish you luck on the...candy situation, and I wish Topaz luck with those cursed sword things." with a wave of his hand, Dawn walked past the two of them and towards Damson.

"Alright, bye!" Raspberry said, happily waving as Dawn departed.

Topaz just looked on quietly, "...His weapon is totally the hat."

"Yeah, probably."

...

Darkness fell, and the students were all gathered in the ballroom, sleeping bags and blankets littering the entire room. Some students were quietly talking between each other, while others had already attempted to get some shut eye. Topaz found himself lying down on his sleeping bag, simply looking up at the ceiling. He wanted to get some sleep, but for whatever reason it wasn't coming to him.

"Do you mind if I butt in?" a voice suddenly asked as a figure squatted down next to him. Even though much of his elaborate costume was missing, Topaz still quickly recognized him.

"Oh, hey Midori." he said, leaning up, "What are you doing here?"

Midori shrugged, "Oh, nothing much. It's so quiet here, and I wanted to talk a little bit. ...Where is that Raspberry girl by the way?"

"She's over there." Topaz said, gesturing his head towards the other half of the room, "I'm sure she's doing fine."

...

Raspberry sat on her sleeping bag alone, surrounded by a lot of girls that either already went to bed, or were consumed in their own conversations.

"Man...it's really boring over here."

...

"Anyway," Topaz continued, "What's up?"

"I was merely curious if you think you're ready for the initiation tomorrow." Midori replied.

Topaz shrugged, "I should be ready, all things considered." he leaned back onto his pillow, "Unless those blades mess me up...Let's hope that doesn't happen tomorrow."

"I'm sure you'll be fine...you did get into the school after all. So that has to account for something."

"I suppose." Topaz nodded, "I'm guessing you're all ready for tomorrow after your little...tree duel."

A grin spread across Midori's face, "It was simply a chance to polish up my skills a little! But it put up a valiant fight, and I think I'll be ready for whatever initiation has to throw at us. Who knows? Maybe we'll even end up on the same team."

Topaz smiled, "Yeah, that would be pretty nice, wouldn't it?"

Before Midori could respond, someone else approached the two of them, "Gentlemen! I can't help but hear you're talking about initiation...A tip of the metaphorical hat from Teal Umbra..."

...

Dawn and Damson were sitting next to each other, both of them lost in their own train of thought. It remained that way for a little bit of time before Dawn sighed, "...So, I think it's safe to say that Plan B could have gone a little better."

Damson turned over to face his friend, "Oh yeah, you never told me how it went in the main hall."

"...Could have gone better. I wasn't able to get a good read on them, but I guess they're a possibility. The girl seemed upbeat enough."

Damson rose an eyebrow, "What about the guy?"

Dawn was silent for a few moments, "...He just had to question the hat."

"Ooh, bad first impression, huh?" Damson laughed, "You know, it's hard to keep the thing a surprise when it really isn't that subtle."

"But it's so much more fun that way!" Dawn said, "And besides, he was also going on about how his weapons were cursed or something...it was kinda sketchy. So overall, we don't exactly have the best track record."

"Hmm..." Damson quietly said, starting to look around the room, "No, I don't suppose there's anyone else at this point and..." he paused, clearly noticing something, "...Hey, look over there. Isn't that the guy from when we landed, you know, the one you wanted to keep an eye on?"

Dawn looked over in the direction Damson was pointing at and saw the thinner black haired man, who definitely was the same guy from earlier, "Hey, it totally is, and it doesn't look like he's asleep yet."

Damson clapped his hands together, "Well then, since I have the better record right now with this plan, I'm going to leave the honors of talking to him, to you. Because I want to go to bed!"

"Hey, wait-" Dawn started before Damson immediately rolled over in his sleeping bag and closed his eyes, "...Okay, whatever." he muttered before getting up and heading over to his target's location.

From the looks of things, he was just kind of gazing off into the crowd of people, he was still sitting up so it didn't even look like he was trying to sleep. A little bit unsure about what to even say in this situation, Dawn approached him and said the first random question that popped into his head, "So...what are you doing at Beacon?"

The man looked up, clearly taken back by Dawn's sudden appearance, "...If that's supposed to be a pick up line, you're going to have to try harder than that."

Dawn's eyes widened, looking taken aback, "Wait, what?! ...Seriously this is why I don't do small talk..."

"So..." the black haired man started, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Dawn sighed, "Okay, I'm just going to be blunt. I'm Dawn, and I was scouting around earlier for people who seemed rather competent in order to have some idea of who to look for when it comes to...however teams are made, I saw you around earlier, and I thought you fit the bill."

The man slowly smiled, "My name is Eminence." he paused. He couldn't lie to himself, he was interested in where this was going. Perhaps it was the fact that it was late at night, and he really couldn't care less who approached him, or the fact that Dawn was prodding his ego, but he did find himself interested in what he was saying, and perhaps he could make a good friend as well, "...Go on."

"Well actually, that's just about it. You presented yourself well, and all I'm offering is that once we figure out how the whole team making thing works, we try to get on the same one." Dawn smiled, "I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be on a team of a bunch of random people I don't know. That's just not a fun time."

"I'll be sure to keep it in mind." Eminence replied.

"Great, thank you very much!" Dawn replied before he chuckled to himself, "...You said your name was Eminence, right? That's always a good name to have."

Eminence rose an eyebrow, "...What do you mean?"

"Soooo," Dawn started, "I'm not only trying to make it so we get a nice team, but I think it'd also be super cool if we manage to set it up that we get a really amazing team name. Some name that is cool enough that everyone would have no choice but to remember it! 'E' is a very valuable letter to have in that case. All the cool names you can get from a vowel!"

"I'm not going to lie...that does sound nice." Eminence lightly chuckled.

"Of course, there's no guarantee we'd even get on the same team. The process might be as stupid as whoever picks the same flavor of ice cream or something like that. It's very unlikely, but I'm planning for as many scenarios as I can. But hey, all I want to do is get to know enough people that no matter what situation it is, I can make it so I can meet with at least one person I know and trust to be competent. Otherwise everyone is just going to be really sad for the rest of their lives because they're on a team with a bunch of random people no one knows, and I don't want that, I'm sure you don't want that, and no one wants that!"

Eminence looked on, trying to comprehend what Dawn just said. Whatever it was, he was speaking way too fast for any normal person to comprehend, "...R-right." he eventually said.

Dawn smiled, "Well then. I'm glad we had this talk, and I guess we'll see how this whole team thing works tomorrow." Eminence simply nodded as Dawn returned to his own sleeping bag.

"Let's see..." he mumbled to himself, "I have myself, Damson, Kaput, and Eminence...that would be the dream team, wouldn't it? I suppose there's also Raspberry and that Topaz guy as a backup...Either way, maybe Plan B was a success after all..." as thoughts of different outcomes of tomorrow's initiation filled his head, Dawn slowly managed to drift off to sleep.

...

 **Author's Notes**

-Not really a whole lot to add on this one. Luckily for you and for me, we're done introducing new characters for quite some time. So now it might actually be possible to focus and develop the characters given instead of running around bringing in 20 new ones. Hooray.

-That said, it's worth noting that I'm trying to stick to the general character basis as much as possible. So everyone has a color name, of course. But everyone does have a corresponding fictional character they are derived from. Some might be more obvious than others, but everyone has one.

-As an aside, I'm hoping to avoid lifting dialogue straight from the show, and thankfully, this is something I can mostly do. I'm sure you've all seen it anyway, you don't need a transcript of everything. However, Ozpin is probably gonna end up being the main factor that breaks that rule. That's what you get for addressing everyone in your speeches. What a world.


	3. Planting the Seeds

To say that Raspberry Auryn happily woke up the next morning, wouldn't necessarily be the truth. In reality, it was a lot closer to: Raspberry Auryn barely forced herself out of her sleeping bag in the morning, and wouldn't stop yawning for at least five minutes. From there, she simply stood still, staring off into space a little longer before it hit her that just about everyone else had already left the ballroom to get ready for initiation.

"Oh right...initiation..." Raspberry mumbled to herself, "Better get ready for the...whatever it is..." she yawned once more before drowsily wandering off to get changed for the day.

...

Topaz slammed the door to his locker shut, putting his swords away on his back. As he turned to walk away, he couldn't help but notice Raspberry leaning her head against her own locker door. A tad confused, he slowly approached her, "Umm, Raspberry...? Are you okay?"

"Yeah...just give me five more minutes..." she mumbled.

Topaz rose an eyebrow, "Are...are you sleeping on your locker?"

Raspberry quickly popped up, "No! I was just...resting my eyes a little bit. I'm totallllyyyy fine...I swear..." she said, opening up the locker door and lazily removing the gauntlet piece and putting it on, "I'm ready for any cooking challenge there is..."

"What are you- No, there's no cooking, I thought we've been over this." Topaz replied, clearly confused at what was going on.

"...Oh yeah. It's a fighty thing...Well, I'll just zap whatever comes my way then...after I rest my eyes on the locker again."

"But, wait-" Topaz's protests were cut off as he saw Dawn heading towards the two of them from across the room, "Oh, hey Dawn. How are things going?" he asked.

"Doing fine, doing fine. I'm just going around making my last rounds to see if everyone is ready for the initiation business." Dawn started, "I mean, I'm sure everyone's all ready to go, but better safe than sorry..." he paused for a moment as he noticed Raspberry leaning against her locker, "...Is she okay?"

"I'm fiiiiinnnne..." Raspberry groaned, lifting her head up from the locker for a moment before giving up.

The three of them were quiet for a few moments before Dawn slowly nodded, "...Right. How about you Topaz?"

Topaz grinned, "I'm just about ready to go! I mean, as long as these swords don't mess me up, I'm pretty sure that I'm all set!"

"But the swords aren't..." Dawn muttered under his breath before shaking his head. He was NOT going to get on that topic again, "Well, glad to hear that then! Here's wishing you good luck!" Dawn smiled before leaving the two of them. As he rounded the corner, he saw Damson waiting for him.

Damson grinned, "Kaput and that Eminence guy seem to be in top condition. Another flawless victory on my part. How about you?"

"I mean, they're nice people, and I wouldn't mind having lunch with the two of them." Dawn replied, "But right now, one of them is sleeping on her locker, and the other has cursed swords. I think it's safe to say that we should still try for DEKD."

"...What does that even mean?"

"It's a work in progress. I'm sure there's a good name in there somewhere...it's just a little harder to come up with than I expected." With all of his gear in tow, Dawn started to walk out of the room, "But you know what? Even if I can't come up with something nice, it's Ozpin's job to come up with cool names, and I think he can handle just about any combination of letters."

"Ehh, as long as it's a good time, I'll be fine with just about anything." Damson replied, keeping pace with Dawn as they left the locker room and made their way to the appointed place for initiation.

...

It wasn't long until the students found themselves lined up on a cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest, each standing on his or her own small platform. Topaz looked around him...he was at the far left end of the students, with no one else on his left side. On his right was Midori, who was tapping his foot impatiently, and Raspberry who was leaning over, barely paying attention to anything that was going on (Actually getting her to stand on her platform took a little longer than it really should have). Looking further down the line, Topaz saw a few students he didn't recognize, followed by Dawn, even more students, and finally Ozpin and Glynda standing on the far right side, giving a speech.

...Wait, giving a speech?

Topaz began to shift around uncomfortably. Ozpin was most definitely giving a speech, about what they had to do all things considered, and Topaz couldn't make out a single word he was saying. Why would he give his speech on one end of the crowd in the first place?! He glanced over at Midori, "Psst..." he whispered, "Can you make out what he's saying? Because I have no idea what's going on."

"I think he just got done saying something about the teams. First person you make eye contact with...or something like that." Midori quietly replied.

"Okay, thanks...so any idea what we're actually doing-" Topaz's thought was cut off as he noticed nearly everyone else took their own weapons out and stood at the ready, "Oh!" he said, preparing to grab his own blades, "Are we taking a group photo or something before we star-"

It was at that moment the platform under Topaz's feet launched, sending the student flying towards the forest, the cry of, "I BLAME THE SWOOOORRRDDS!" escaping his lips.

Midori simply laughed, removing his own rapier, "Well then, I guess it's showtime!" On cue, his own platform launched, "REMEMBER ME AS A HERO!" he yelled in excitement as he too was shot off the cliff.

Raspberry looked to her left, not exactly realizing where Topaz and Midori had disappeared to. She stretched out her arms and yawned once more, "...I'm sorry, what are we doing again?" It was at that point that Raspberry Auryn learned a very important lesson. There is no better wake up call than being flung off a cliff over a dangerous forest at top speed. The platforms continued to fire off, one by one, launching each and every students straight into the Emerald Forest.

...

As soon as Topaz had finished yelling about the fact that he was suddenly launched off of a cliff with little to no warning, it occurred to him that he should probably be doing something about the fact that he was suddenly launched off a cliff with little to no warning. Quickly, he removed the twin hook blades from his back, and held one in each hand. While the initial launch did catch him off guard, that wasn't to say he didn't have some form of landing strategy ready. It was all a matter of finding something to grab onto.

Luckily, being that it was a forest, there were trees just about everywhere.

Pulling a trigger located in the left blade's hilt, Topaz watched as the hooked portion of the blade fired forward, attached to the rest of the blade by a sturdy rope, and embedded itself into a large branch of a nearby tree. Combining the grappling hook with his own momentum, Topaz swung himself over the branch, before allowing himself to drop down and land safely on the tree branch. Clicking the trigger yet again, the hook unlatched itself from the bottom of the branch and returned to the sword itself.

Topaz dusted off his jacket, "Well, that went better than I thought..." he mumbled to himself before looking down, "Juuuust need to get down from here..."

...

Dawn smiled as he found himself flying through the air, one hand placed firmly on his hat so it wouldn't fall off...that would be a problem if it did. However, he knew that he wanted to make as much distance as possible before actually landing. He was hoping Damson would be doing the same...it was only in hindsight that Dawn realized it might have been beneficial to actually discuss that part of the plan.

Tapping his boots together, Dawn aimed himself towards a rather large tree, trying to line it up so he would almost "land" on the side of it. It was a bit difficult considering the speed, but he managed to place his boot on the tree's bark. He remained there for a few moments, sliding down the side of the tree before clicking the boots together once more, only this time he was launched forward at high speeds once more, trying to aim himself at another tree to repeat the cycle.

In retrospect, Dawn was rather satisfied with how well the boots actually worked on the field. He knew that he would never be able to actually use them in a real battle, it was just a bit too sloppy for him, but what he could use them for was a worthwhile mobility boost. Nothing beats rocketing yourself forward at high speeds, after all. Though when he was first testing them out, the end results were a little sloppy, by this point he had the hang of it. As long as he zigzagged from tree to tree on his left and right and continued launching himself forward, he'd make it to his destination in no time.  
The pattern really wasn't all that difficult. Find a tree on his left, launch off to the right. Find a tree on his right, launch off to the left. Find a tree on his left, launch off to the right, hear someone suddenly screaming about how stupid their swords are. Find a-

Wait, what?

Dawn quickly turned his head to find the source of the noise only to see someone flying backwards through the air from the tree had just launched off from, "Ohhh..." he muttered to himself, "That's not good..."

Stopping his quest to make as much distance as possible, Dawn quickly descended, still launching off nearby trees in the process before landing firmly on the ground. He looked around for a few moments to see if anyone else was in the area. Upon seeing that he was the only one, he started to run off after whoever he had just send flying.

...

There was a wave of relief that washed over Eminence as he found himself flying through the air. It was a tad odd, most people would probably be feeling something quite different in the same situation, but it was less about the action of being flung into an incredibly dangerous forest, and more of what it meant. This was the beginning of everything for him. Eminence would no longer be strapped to any old life or stupid expectations. He was now in control.

Well, he would be once he actually landed safe and sound. Holding a black metal staff lined with purple detailing in both hands, he looked forward. He'd just need to find the perfect target in order to make this work properly. As if on cue, an especially large tree started to come into sight. Holding the staff forward, Eminence hit a small button imprinted on the side, which caused the end of the weapon to fold back, revealing a spear point. The staff hit its target and the tip implanted itself into the tree's bark, stopping Eminence from flying any further into the tree itself, though the momentum caused him to flip around the staff once before stopping, hanging from the weapon.

Looking down, Eminence realized he really wasn't all that far from the ground, so he simply pulled back on the staff, dislodging it from the tree, and allowed himself to land on both feet. He took a few steps forward and scanned around the area. It didn't look like anyone had landed in the area besides him...though he knew he'd have to run into someone sooner than later, so he might as well make as much progress as he could until then.

As he was coming up with his game plan, Eminence suddenly heard a distant scream, growing louder and louder. He took a few steps forward, trying to ignore whatever was screaming, but suddenly something slammed right into him, forcing him face first on the ground. His first instinct was that it was some Grimm that managed to get the jump on him, so he quickly shook off whatever had knocked him down, and get himself back onto his feet, pointing his staff at the culprit.  
It was only then that Eminence realized it wasn't a Grimm that landed on him, it was a student. ...In fact, it was that same girl from the airship...whatever her name was. Upon realizing this, he sighed and lowered his weapon.

The girl groaned, rubbing her backside before looking up, "...Oh!" she jumped up, "I remember you! You're Eminence, right?"

"I am." he replied, "Now, if you don't mind me asking...what just happened..." he tapered off, still not remembering what her name was.

Luckily, the girl took the hint, "Oh yeah, Raspberry Auryn! I guess you were umm, a bit busy back on the ship to remember that." the two were silent for a few moments before Raspberry continued, "Anyway, I might have been just a little tired this morning, and I might have completely forgotten what my landing strategy was until I was already rocketing through the sky. So, I had to improvise a little something, and it...might have gone a little sour...but that's okay, because you were there to break my fall! Thanks for that by the way!"

Eminence slowly nodded, "...Right. No problem?"

"Great! Anyway, it was nice to see you again, but I'm sure we both have people we want to meet, and I think they said something about first person you...make eye...contact with..." Raspberry trailed off, her smile slowly disappearing from her face. Her eyes started to dart around rapidly before deciding to simply look down at the ground below her, "...You probably had plans didn't you?" she said again, her voice a lot quieter than before, "And I just messed them all up, didn't I? ...I'm sorry..."

Eminence looked on quietly for a few moments. It was a little annoying that he wasn't able to find Teal or someone right away, but she didn't really seem like a bad person. The only real pain here was his back after getting landed on...but besides that, he really couldn't find himself to be all that annoyed.

"...You know what you're doing in a fight, right?" Eminence eventually asked.

Raspberry looked up, "Yeah...?" she held up the gauntlet around her right hand, "At least I'd hope so, getting into Beacon and all."

"Well, come on then." Eminence said, a small smile forming across his face, "If we want to get those relics, there's no time to waste."

He started to take a few steps towards the forest sprawled out in front of him. Raspberry remained on the ground for a moment before realizing what was going on, where she jumped up from the ground and started to follow behind Eminence, a small trail of "Thank You!"s following shortly behind.

...

"Of course someone has to be right in my path...Why wouldn't they? Have to mess up an otherwise perfect landing..." Dawn found himself muttering to himself as he ran through the woods. Whoever he sent flying couldn't have flown that far, and judging by the arc, they had to be around somewhere.

"Oh, so it was you!" a familiar voice yelled out nearby. Looking around, Dawn saw what was an upset Topaz Fossil walking over to him, clearly a little roughed up, "I actually stuck the landing and was feeling pretty fine, thinking this might go better than I thought, but then some hat wearing bozo comes flying on down and suddenly I'm soaring through the sky again!"

At least it didn't take long to find him.

Dawn awkwardly shifted in place, "I mean, I did come after you to make sure that I didn't just kill someone. ...I'm sure that wouldn't be the best impression to make during initiation."

"...I guess you did, didn't you?" Topaz said, calming down, "Well, thanks for checking up on me at the very least."

"It's the least I could do. Have to make sure you were fine...It might have been a problem otherwise." Dawn said. The two of them awkwardly looked at one another for a few moments before Dawn continued, "...I guess 'T' is a pretty good letter to have..."

"...Yeah, what?"

Dawn smiled, "Well, I did run into you first, so I guess we're already teammates...Which I'll take, sure. But I've been trying to make sure I can get a cool team name and all that, and 'T' is a pretty fancy letter to have. There's some good potential there."

Topaz slowly nodded, "Okaaaaay..."

"Anyway," Dawn started, clapping his hands together, "There's no time to waste, is there? Let's go find those relic things!"

"Where are they again?"

Dawn shrugged before starting to walk forward, "I have no idea. But I'm sure they're somewhere in that direction, so that's where I'm heading!"

Topaz stood on confused for a moment before deciding to cut his losses and follow. Dawn seemed to be a...tad erratic, but at the same time he didn't seem like a bad guy or anything. Though he did have to work on first impressions, getting knocked into the stratosphere isn't exactly the best one.

...

Midori found himself walking through the forest, swinging his blade around haphazardly. He had landed without a hitch, but not much had happened since then. He hadn't come across anyone, neither friend or foe, and the boredom was slowly starting to eat away at him.

He was contemplating stopping everything and just attacking another tree before he heard a low growling noise coming from behind him. Midori froze in his tracks, "Oh, it's about time..." he said to himself, a smile forming on his face as he turned around to be greeted by a singular Beowolf standing across from him. He held the rapier forward, "I was hoping for a little more, but I suppose you'll have to do." He began to circle around the Grimm, trying to predict what its next move would be. If the Grimm attacked first, Midori figured he could easily counter whatever the Beowolf would do. But if he attacked first, perhaps he could even end the fight before the Grimm could make its move. A fast kill such as that, while not as impressive to look at, can be something to brag about later. He figured it was something he could at least go for, and if for whatever reason he doesn't kill it right away, he can always live with a longer fight. He held his rapier at the ready, continuing to circle around the Grimm before grinning, "Alright beastie, let's dance!"

Midori was about to lunge forward, but it was in that moment another figure ran into the clearing, some form of black metal bat in his hands. The figure quickly ran up to the Beowolf, and before it had a chance to react, he swung the bat forward, sending the Grimm careening into the air, flying into the distance.

Staring in disbelief for a moment, Midori lowered his blade and looked up at the newcomer, "You had to go and ruin my big moment, didn't you...?" he said before getting a closer look at the figure, recognizing the mask on his face, "...I remember you. You're that Teal fellow from last night."

Teal smiled, "Right you are. Midori, was it? I wouldn't call it ruining your big moment as much as I would...redirecting the spotlight."

"I'd give it a seven out of a ten. Your entrance could have used a bit of work..."

"Geez." Teal casually held his hands in the air, "Tough crowd."

Midori let out a small chuckle, "At least I ran into someone who clearly has an idea of how to put on a good show. Imagine if some really boring student walked up here instead! That would be a huge mess if I ever saw one."

"Well then..." Teal paused, performing a rather over the top bow towards his companion, "It looks like you found the right guy."

The rapier was held back up, this time pointing forward at the forest sprawled out before them, "Well then, how about we give them all one spectacle they're sure to remember?"

Teal twirled the metallic bat, "I'm right behind you." and without another word, the two ran off through the forest, ready to take on the world.

As it turned out, "the world" happened to be a round Grimm rolling in from another part of the forest. Upon noticing the two students, the creature curled out of its ball, revealing that this particular Grimm looked similar to a boar, two large curving tusks protruding from its front.

The duo quickly held their weapons at the ready, "A Boarbatusk?" Teal wondered out loud, "I wasn't expecting to see one of these in the forest."

Midori swung his sword through the air, "What's a show without a few surprises? It's going down all the same!" he watched as the Grimm prepared to charge towards the two of them, and pointed the rapier forward in response, "En Garde!"

As if on cue, the Boarbatusk rushed towards Midori. With a smile on his face, Midori sidestepped out of the Grimm's path and swung his blade at the charging creature. While the blow had landed, it had collided with the plating that covered the creature, leaving the Grimm completely unharmed, if not angrier. The Boarbatusk quickly redirected itself towards Midori's new position and rushed forward, swinging its head so one of its large tusks would strike its opponent. Midori was quick to parry the blow, but the clanging noise that followed made it clear that like his first blow, he was making no progress. He quickly hopped backwards away from the Grimm, seeing how it fought, the one thing he realized he had to do was keep his distance for the time being and wait for an opening. The Boarbatusk did not relent however, and continued to advance on Midori.

Teal saw this as an opportunity, and held the bat out forward, pulling a small trigger located near the handle. In one quick motion, the top of the bat opened up, revealing a rather sizable chamber located inside. With his target in sight, Teal pulled the trigger once more, a small array of bullets firing from the bat and striking the backside of the Grimm directly. However, much like before, the attack didn't seem to cause any physical damage to the Boarbatusk whatsoever, but what it did do was cause the Grimm to turn around and focus on Teal instead. With its new target in mind, the Boarbatusk curled itself up into a ball and rolled towards Teal rather quickly.

Taking a short moment to catch his breath, Midori quickly analyzed the situation before yelling towards Teal, "If you could send it back over in my direction, that would be great!"

"Why? So you can take the kill for yourself?" Teal jokingly replied, flipping the top back over his weapon and just as the Boarbatusk was about to run him over, he swung the bat, turning the rolled up Grimm right around, back towards his ally.

Midori simply smirked, "No, no. I'm going to do one better." As the Boarbatusk started to get close once again, Midori leaped into the air, watched as the Grimm had quickly run over the spot he was just standing, and positioned himself so he would land right on the moving Boarbatusk. The Grimm did not stop rolling, forcing Midori to start running on the armored creature in order not to fall off. "Aha! I have done it!" he yelled out, "I have tamed the beast! I am the victor of this duel...Wait, we're still going..." his voice faded away as the Grimm didn't uncurl itself, instead it continued rolling on through the forest.

Teal stood there in stunned silence for a moment before shaking his head, "Hey! Come back here with my kill!" with that said, he began running after both the Boarbatusk and Midori.

...

"It's...quiet."

Kaput had been moving through the forest for what felt like a long time now...but for all he knew, it could have only been a few minutes. He had made the landing with ease, it's one of those cases where it definitely helps out having a pair of wings, and right away ran off through the forest, hoping that it wouldn't take long to find the relics.

It was too bad that he hadn't found anything but trees. No other students, no Grimm, and definitely no ruined temple. His pace slowed down to the point where he was merely walking through the forest. He figured he just got rather unlucky with where he landed and everyone else happened to land in a different part of the forest. Though, the idea didn't make wandering around on his own any more tolerable.

Suddenly, as if his concerns had been answered, there was a rather loud rustling sound coming from a nearby tree. Kaput immediately turned around and reached into his trenchcoat. He wasn't sure if this thing was a friend or foe, but what he was sure about was the fact that he would never turn his back on a potential enemy, no matter what. He continued watching the rustling leaves in anticipation, waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, someone jumped out of the tree...or closer to fell out of the tree, as they landed right on their butt. Kaput was about to move until he realized he recognized the person as Damson.

Damson rubbed his back for a moment before looking up, "Heya."

Kaput was silent for a couple seconds until he took a deep breath,"If you don't mind me asking...What was it you were doing in that tree?"

"Oh, you know. Waiting around for someone I know." Damson shrugged, "Dawn really wanted to try to set up the teams beforehand. So I figured as soon as I landed somewhere safe, I'd just wait around til someone I know comes by. That way, I can make sure I don't run into some stranger first."

"And what would you have done if no one walked by?" Kaput asked.

Damson hopped to his feet, "Well, I guess that would have been bad then." he began to grin, "So, I guess it's a good thing you showed up, isn't it?"

The bird Faunus paused momentarily and crossed his arms, "Well, I suppose I cannot argue with that. ...I probably should not bother complaining, after all, it is refreshing to see a familiar face."

"Great!" Damson replied, "How about we get going then? We probably don't have a lot of time to waste."

As Damson began to walk down a path, Kaput merely turned to face him, "...You already know where to go?"

"I was hanging out on top of that tree for a while, so it gave me plenty of time to take in the view." Damson began to reply, "It also gave me plenty of time to spot what looks like a large cleaning oveeeerrrr..." Damson spun in a circle before stopping and pointing right ahead, "there. Sure, it might not be the right thing, but no harm in checkin' it out, right?"

Kaput nodded, "I suppose you're correct. Let us head out then." and following Damson's lead, the walked on through the deep forest.

...

"...And I can even throw in some Dust Crystals to mix things up!" Raspberry finished up, waving her gauntleted hand around, "Yep! I made sure that Force of Will can handle just about anything!"

Eminence's reply was nothing more than a short, "Mhm." as the two of them continued to walk through the forest. It wasn't so much that he wasn't interested in what Raspberry had to say about the gauntlet, he was just trying to focus on figuring out where to go, and parts of the conversation got drowned out as a result.

Raspberry tilted her head, "What about you? What's your weapon all about?"

Taking his eyes off of the path for a moment, Eminence looked down to his staff and began to examine it, "This is Caliburnus Sceptre. I designed it so it would excel in both long range and close quarters combat, and in a pinch, Dust could be used to augment the ammunition." A small smile formed on his face, "I made sure this thing could do a little bit of everything, and with it, I can handle just about anything that's thrown at me."

"Oh sweet!" Raspberry's eyes seemed to light up, "I guess that makes us Dust buddies!"

"I mean," Eminence stuttered out, "If that's what you want it call it...?" he was quiet for a little longer before he shrugged and continued walking forward, "Sure, Dust buddies, why not?"

Raspberry skipped right by Eminence before turning around, still moving backwards, "By the way, where are we going again? I may or may not have spaced on that entire speech."

"We're looking for a ruined temple of sorts, somewhere in this forest. There, all we do is pick up some relic, bring it back, and that's just about it." Eminence paused before scratching his head, "The only remotely difficult part of this whole thing is finding the temple in the first place..."

"Wait," Raspberry's eyes began to widen, "We don't even know where we're going? Are we just going to get lost forever or something?!"

Eminence shrugged, "I doubt it. It has to be...somewhere in this direction." he said, waving his hand forward, "It's just a matter of wandering around for a while, unfortunately."

Raspberry let out a sigh of relief, "Okay, that's a start. Though, I wonder..." she paused for a second, doing a quick scan around the area before taking a sharp right turn, "I think I see something, it's not the temple, but come over here!"

While he was a tad confused, Eminence complied nonetheless and followed where Raspberry was going. It didn't take long at all before he realized what they were heading for and the two of them stopped. They had come to the edge of a rather small cliff, there was plenty more of the forest before them on the lower elevation, but their current position did provide a rather helpful vantage point. Eminence gazed downwards to the cliff itself. It couldn't have been more than ten feet tall, it would only be a minor inconvenience to jump down or scale a cliff like that.

"Hmm, I saw the cliff, but I was hoping the view would be better..." Raspberry crossed her arms, "But instead, all of the trees are still in the way."  
Eminence continued to gaze down below before turning back to face Raspberry, "No, this is fine. I'd wager a ruined temple would have some clearing in the woods, or else there would be no room for the temple itself. I can't see anything that looks remotely like a clearing from here, so the temple would have to be somewhere in the other direction."

"Oh, right!" Raspberry nodded, "Sounds like a plan then! Let's get going..." she trailed off as she heard a noise coming from below them. Looking down again, she noticed a singular Ursa walking out of the forest and looking up at the two students, both of which readied their weapons, "Do you think it can get up here?" Raspberry asked.

"I wouldn't doubt it." Eminence replied, "But as I said, I'm pretty sure I could handle just about anything."

However, before either of them could act, they paused as they noticed a second Ursa coming out of the forest and joining the first. And then a third, and a fourth...

Needless to say, it wasn't long until there was a whole herd of them standing at the base of the cliff, a few of them beginning to scale the cliff face.

Raspberry glanced towards Eminence, "...So, you can handle this, right?"

Eminence slowly nodded, "...Right, I can handle this, all you need to do is follow my lead and...run." and without missing a beat, Eminence ran off in the other direction, running through the woods.

"Okay." Raspberry quietly replied, "Good plan." and in a moment, she too was running right behind Eminence, the screams of "BAIL! BAIL!" filling the area.

...

"I'm telling you, just because I just so happened to bump into you, doesn't mean the swords are haunted!" Dawn sighed. The two of them had been wandering around the forest for a little while with no success. Naturally, it didn't take long for the subject of Topaz's weapon to come up again.

Topaz held up a finger, "Okay, first of all, it's cursed, not haunted. There's a huge difference, thank you very much. Second of all, the list of terrible things that have happened to me are incredibly high all because of..." he suddenly trailed off, stopped in his tracks, and clutched his forehead.

Dawn very quickly stopped what he was doing and turned around, "A-are you okay?"

Topaz was silent for a moment before he took a deep breath, "Yeah, sorry about that. It's just a minor headache that came out of nowhere. It's not a big-" he was cut off as the two of them heard loud rustling coming from around them. It only was a few second later when three Beowolves emerged from the forest and began to circle around the duo, "...Deal." Topaz finished his sentence, grabbing his dual swords. Dawn on the other hand, just stood there, tapping his foot, "...What are you doing?" Topaz said, glaring at him.

"Waiting it out for a minute." Dawn shrugged, "If we're gonna be teammates, I wanna see how well you fight with those things...especially if they are cursed or whatever. It's no fun if I don't even know your style."

"What do you mean?" Topaz yelled, "You won't even tell me what your weapon IS and you want to examine my style? That's the stupidest-" he was very quickly cut off as the Beowolves lunged forward, two of them directed towards Topaz, the third directed towards Dawn. Topaz held out both hook blades on his left and right, blocking both of the Grimm attacking him. Dawn on the other hand, tapped his boots together and propelled himself up into the air, and out of the circle they were surrounded in. When he landed on the ground, he was a good ten feet away from where he started, and he took the Grimm's attention with him, as it started to rush towards him again.

It was very clear that Topaz could only hold back the two Beowolves for a short period of time, and the left blade's grappling hook wasn't going to be any help whatsoever. The right blade on the other hand...

Topaz pulled the trigger located in the right blade's hilt, and instead of a grappling hook firing forward, a round of ammunition fired from the front of the blade, sending the Beowolf on his right flying backwards. With a free hand, Topaz quickly spun around, slicing the other Beowolf across its chest. In pain, the Grimm tried to swipe its claws at Topaz once more, but he was easily able to avoid the wounded creature's blow and countered with yet another slice to his foe's body. The Beowolf then stumbled backwards, and faded away into nothingness.

However, it was in this moment where Topaz completely spaced out on the fact that the second Beowolf had leaped into the air, heading right towards Topaz's head. At the last second, he was able to move out of the way, but it had him stumbling backwards. Not relenting, the Beowolf landed on the ground and continued to rush towards Topaz. Regaining his balance, Topaz stood his ground, holding both of his hook swords at the ready. As soon as the Beowolf had gotten close enough, Topaz quickly rushed forward himself, crossing his two blades over one another. With the Grimm's momentum, the two hooks easily pierced through the Beowolf's body, and all it took from there was one clean action of moving the blades outwards, and the Grimm's chest was cut open. Topaz pulled the right blade's trigger once more, firing another round at the Beowolf, the force of the shot sending the creature flying away from Topaz and crashing onto the ground, where it vanished right away.

Topaz took a moment to catch his breath before he looked over to Dawn and realized that he was doing nothing but propel himself around the Beowolf, but not actually doing anything to harm it, "...Are you actually going to fight the thing?" Topaz asked, "Or do you need to have me come over there and take care of it for you?"

"Oh, you're done?" Dawn asked, barely looking up at Topaz, "Okay, sure, I'll wrap things up." Dawn carefully removed the top hat from his head and in one quick moment, flattened it. What remained in his hand wasn't so much a hat anymore as it was a black chakram, four prongs extending from the weapon's bladed border to form a handle. A smile flashed across Dawn's face as he spun the chakram around for a moment before reeling back and throwing it straight at the opposing Beowolf. As the weapon flew at high speeds, Dawn tapped his boots once more and propelled himself back up into the air. The Grimm kept its gaze glued on Dawn, to the point where the chakram was able to cut right through the Beowolf with no problem. As the Grimm collapsed on the ground and began to evaporate, Dawn landed behind where the Beowolf was standing, and caught the chakram. With a smile planted on his face, he turned to face Topaz, "And that," with a flick of his wrist, the chakram popped out, turning back into the top hat, which Dawn carefully placed on his head, "is what the hat is for."

"Yep." Topaz replied, "I totally called it."

The smile very quickly disappeared from Dawn's face, "What, seriously?" Dawn loudly groaned, "I spent like, all week figuring out how to introduce it and everything..."

Topaz took a few steps forward, "So, are you ready to keep going? I'm hoping we could find what we're looking for before we get jumped again or something. But knowing my luck..."

"We've been searching for a while now..." Dawn looked up and began to look around, "It has to be around here somewhere."

"Hmm..." Topaz put a hand to his chin, "We could always try to cut through some of the trees and take a left or something."

Dawn sighed, "Why not? We didn't find anything before, and I don't think taking one left is going to solve all of our problems..." Looking around, he began to squeeze his way past a nearby tree, Topaz following close behind. It was only a few moments later when the two came to a clearing in the forest. In the center of the clearing was a rather small, half destroyed stone structure with various pedestals standing around the border of the structure. Most of them had what looked to be chess pieces on them, though a few of them were empty.

"...Or we could take one left and find it right away." Dawn quietly said, "That's stupid."

Topaz grinned, "Hey, I'm not complaining!"

"Neither am I!" a singsong voice emerged from nearby. Dawn very quickly recognized the voice as he turned around to see Damson and Kaput entering the area.

Dawn grinned, "Hey! Glad you see you made it, and with Kaput too, that's great!" he paused for a moment and tilted his head, "But how did you make it here so soon after we did...?"

A small chuckle escaped from Kaput's lips, "We heard you groaning from nearby. Damson quickly figured out it was you and we simply followed your voice."

"Oh, umm..." Dawn shifted his hat, "You're welcome, I guess?"

Damson began to rub his hands together, "So, each duo just has to grab one of these relics, right? I guess I'll just go pick...one..." he stopped his sentence short as he could swear he heard some yelling in the distance, "I'm not crazy, you all hear that, right?"

Topaz nodded, "Yeaaaaaah, I definitely do hear that...And it's getting louder."

The four students looked around confused for a moment as the yelling continued to get louder and louder until two people ran into the clearing. It took a moment for the group to figure out who they were, but it was quite clear that the two of them were Raspberry and Eminence...the former of which was doing all the screaming.

However, upon noticing the stone structure, Raspberry stopped in her tracks, "Oh hey, it's the temple." she said completely calmly.

Eminence stopped as well, gasping and catching his breath, "Oh...that's great..."

"Well, well, well!" Dawn clapped his hands together, "That's really cool, it looks like the gang is all here!"

At that exact moment, Midori riding a rolled up Boarbatusk rolled into the clearing, Midori's cry of, "I am a champion!" echoing through the sky, before the Grimm crashed right into the temple. The crash knocked both Midori and the Grimm backwards. Without a moment to spare, Teal came running into the clearing, bat still at the ready, and upon seeing the defenseless Boarbatusk, he whacked the creature with his bat, sending it flying over the horizon.

Midori jumped off the ground and glared at Teal, "Really? After all that you had to go and steal my spotlight again?!"

Dawn just watched the events unfold and nodded, "...Right. The gang and whoever those two are."

...

 **Author's Notes**

-I like to believe that in anything RWBY related, that the weapons are just as much characters as the actual characters are. There's something that's very fun about weaponizing just about anything. And of course, adding guns to that. Only a couple weapons were name dropped this time, but all of them do indeed have names. They'll just show up whenever it happens to be convenient.

-While it's never specified in the chapter itself, I like to believe Raspberry's landing strategy in this case was simply, "Shoot at the trees and hopes it somehow slows me down."

-My original plans had a few more small fight scenes with the other groups, but then I just kind of slowly started to cut down on it. Besides, everyone will have more than enough time to do stuff next time.

-To my understanding, Boarbatusks are not native to the Emerald Forest, or at least in what I've looked up on the topic. However, the mental image of someone riding one of those was way too amusing for me to pass up, so I guess I pulled a few strings.

-I'm not sure how any actual combination of DEKD would actually work and fit the naming scheme. I'm sure if I dug around long enough, I could find something that would fit the criteria, but that's not the name of the story, so oh well.


End file.
